#Blessed

Our family has been holding onto great hope for the past many months, and today we look forward to our family's blessings growing again.

We are #blessed.

Until next time,
Angie

Girl fun...

Isabelle and Madelyn have become quite the buddies this summer.  They have had lots of time to play pretend, to dress up and to come up with entertainment to last hours.  Here are some pictures of them recently at play.

The girls love having Alexa play music, while they dress up and have a princess dance party.  Most of the time Madelyn is Elsa, Isabelle some other princess and they alternate back and forth between Isabelle's Kidz Bop Kidz songs and Madelyn's "Let it go!"

They love to dance with each other and have countless giggles as they pretend they are fancy princesses.

Also, even though it is hot, I recently braved the heat and took the girls to the park one evening.  They were so excited, they love the new park by our house.  

Watching them together I hope they will be the best of friends for their entire lives.  I know how thankful I am for my sisters, and I have no doubt these two are going to be friends for life.

Madelyn was too scared to go down the "fast slide" by herself, so Isabelle helped her and together they went down.  Isabelle is a great big sister.

Madelyn is definitely Isabelle's shadow and what ever Isabelle does, Madelyn has to try to copy as well.  Hence Madelyn trying to climb up this spider web looking toy.  

They figured it out and soon they were swinging from the sides.

The park is such a nice place to go, and so close to our house, even if it is so hot outside.  The girls love to also play hide and seek there.  By any chance can you see where Madelyn was hiding?

Great memories of us girl's time together.

Until next time,

Angie

Madelyn and Jack...

Madelyn and Jack have quite the relationship.  Jack, technically our first child, has entered the adult stage of his life, and spends most of his day sleeping.  Madelyn on the other hand, our youngest, refuses to take naps and is usually the last kid to go to sleep at night with us.  In some ways they are the exact opposite, and yet these two have quite the endearing relationship.

Jack lays around most days, sleeping on the rug in the middle of the floor.  He will be 13 in the spring and we know our years with him are limited.  I guess in a way our years with our kids at home are all limited.  We've seen Jack slow down in recent years, but he still has his moments of energetic bursts.  His sight is starting to go and he now has this irrational behavior of barking at the wall when he wants food.  In my human justification, the wall he barks at in our kitchen when he wants to eat, is the same location of where we used to keep his food in our previous home.  Maybe he's just remembering the days of our previous home.  

While he's aged and is definitely in his senior years, Jack still is super patient and doesn't mind all the extra pesters he gets from his little sister.  Often when Jack is in the middle of a deep snooze, Madelyn will pull up next to him and start poking him.  Then she'll move onto shaking his collar or picking up each of his legs.  Most of the time he sighs, with annoyance and then just lays there and lets her do her thing.

Since day one Jack has been a very great dog to have with the kids.  He's very loving towards them, allows them to play however they'd like with him and lately is very happy when he is ignored.  He's very busy getting in lots of rest.

Each of the kids have bonded with Jack and while he definitely doesn't get the attention he got before the human kids came, he has been such a great dog.  We are thankful for the memories each of us have gotten to create with him and we hope for many more.

Until next time,

Angie

Summer Police Academy

This summer Gabe was able to participate in a summer training program with a local police department.  For a week he was exposed to the many different roles within the police department, getting a first hand introduction to the jobs, responsibilities and tasks that each person within the police department are charged with.

Gabe has been interested in police work for a few years, even as a little boy he pretended to be a police man and arrest the bad guys.  This program was a great way for him to see exactly what a career in police work entails.  

At first he wasn't sure about it, before the first day he asked me what it was all going to be about and why it was all day.  However that first evening after the program, it was clearly he was hooked. He got to learn about the SWAT team, the forensics unit, the bicycle team, patrol units, detective work, the undercover unit, even the gang unit.  Oh and how could I forget the K9 group.  

At the end of the week they invited the trainee's families to come and hear from the chief about what they had learned as well as watch a summary video that showed highlights from the week.  Here are a few photos from the program we got to attend.

It was clear Gabe was interested, he sat in the very front row each day and from what I could tell from the recap video, asked a ton of questions.  Sitting in the front alone tells me he was soaking up all he could.

The Chief of police went around and asked each student what they were most interested in learning when the program began and then what they had learned and found most interesting.  Gabe talked about the requirements to become a police officer and how competitive it is, and how the gang units have to know so much.

At the end they took a picture of the crew that got to complete the week's training.

 I'm so glad he was able to be exposed to such a high quality program.  He learned so much, gained some exceptional career insight and was able to challenge himself through some of the obstacles they put them through.

Hopefully next summer Michael can try to enroll in the same program.  He was very interested in all Gabriel learned and asked even more questions.  Hopefully next year.

Oh and the girls liked it too, especially the statues outside the station. They talked to them like they were real!

Gabriel proudly displaying his certification of completion.  Who knows maybe some day he will be a police officer!

Until next time,

Angie

Haircut 1 : Wimpy kid 0

Gabriel is a tough guy.  He can play ball, get hit in places where I know it has to hurt like no other.  But when it comes to getting his haircut, he seriously has the wimpiest responses.  Maybe it's that he has the most sensitive head, I'm not sure.  Either way, I thought it was just that he complained like no other when I cut his hair. 

My mom and dad have been here for the past few weeks helping us and being that my mom is a professional hair stylist, I asked her if she'd help me cut the kids' hair.  Michael and Isabelle had no issues and their cuts went smoothly.  Then there was Gabriel.  Here is a collection of a few photos from when my mom endured the process of cutting his hair.

Seriously could he be more dramatic?

Before! Totally in need of a haircut!

Seriously!  Look at him.  I promise all mom was doing was cutting his hair.  How could anyone respond like that?

It gets better!

At this point we were all cracking up.  He was so wimpy!!!

And then I told him I was going to post this to the blog.  Funny how his reaction changed.

Guess it really didn't hurt all that bad.

Silly boy.

Until next time,

Angie

Summer Swim Team...

The three older kids have been swimming their hearts out most days this summer as we returned to swim team for the last few weeks.  This year Isabelle joined her big brothers and while we told her this year is just about learning and having fun, she's been doing a great job!

The boys continue to love swim team and are always competing to see who can beat who and if they are faster with each passing week.  

Here are a few pictures from the last few swim meets.

Gabriel getting ready to race.

Isabelle is in the middle lane with the pink swim cap.

And after the race, she tells them her name and gets her time sheet to take to the ribbon table.

Michael has made a "friend" at swim and she is an incredible swimmer.   Both of them 

And here's a shot of the cheerleaders who sit on the sidelines and sweat while the others stay cool in the water.

We only have a few more meets til the city meet and then swim will be wrapped up for another season.

Until next time,

Angie

Summer dayz...

So far this summer we've had quite a few days at home. 

The kids have been spending a lot of time together and it would be fair to say they are sick of each other. They seem to fight constantly but I try to hear what my grandpa would always say, "If they can fight that means they are healthy, so there's a blessing in that." 

Some friends recently shared this cowgirl outfit and Madelyn loves it.  She repeats "YEE HAW"  over and over. 

We've spent time at the library playing and checking out books.  

Madelyn also enjoys playing dress up in Isabelle's clothes.

The boys, while they don't let me take their picture as much as they used to, have been busy perfecting their survival skills and recently built this fort in our backyard they were going to play "survival" in.  With it being around 110 outside I told them I didn't think their shelter would hold up to the elements and keep them from burning up.  What do I know though?

A dear friend dropped off some summer activities for the kids to play with and they were thrilled, so was mom.  It gave them activities to play and kept them busy from fighting for many hours.

Summer is going by very quickly and its crazy to think in just over 4 weeks they will be going back to school... but then again, who's counting (mom)!

Until next time,

Angie